Trailer for 'Resident Evil 5' impresses

The developer of "Resident Evil 5" has chosen Africa for the setting of the game. Images of a white "hero" shooting at infected zombies that are black inspired one critic's reaction: "Wow, clearly no one black worked on this game."

Editor's note: Tim Seppala shares his thoughts about the recently released game footage of "Resident Evil 5." The video contains too much carnage for a blog from a family newspaper, but those interested can find it floating on the tubes, including gamevideos.com.

Capcom has slipped another trailer for "Resident Evil 5" out on to the interwebs this weekend that has me salivating for the day they drop this bombshell upon the world.

"There is no reason here"
Yes, the setting and enemies are going to tick off a lot of people, but you didn't see Spaniards up in arms over the setting and enemies of "RE4" did you? Yes, the gameplay looks to be more of the same, but there is new stuff too, like:

• Melee attacks: I know what you're saying, "Tim, there was melee in the last game, remember the knife and the kick?" Well in the last game, the knife was slower than level grinding to beat a boss in a "Final Fantasy" game and the kick was only context sensitive. New melee moves look to include an uppercut that can take out several enemies at once. I'm sure Chris will have a few more tricks up his sleeve once the game FINALLY releases.

• Did I see Las Plagas spewing out of the infected's mouths and retracting?!?!?!?!

• Online co-op (!!!) I like co-op much better than adversarial play, and the fact that co-op play has been integrated into the story itself makes me shed tears of zombie killing joy. Gotta love Chris's quip near the end of the trailer, "No worries, my last partner was a woman too."

"All I see is death"
There are tons of cues to "Resident Evil 4" in the two-minute video including:

• Camera shot from a cave, similar to the ending sequence from "RE4"

• Burlap headed chainsaw enemies! By far one of the most annoying yet at the same time satisfying (when you finally kill them of course) are back!

• Dogs: A series staple, they're back. Since this one is set in Africa maybe we'll get hyenas too.

• The sewer: This is where players were first introduced to the Las Plagas in "4", showing the tentacles retracting into a sewer grate at the end was no coincidence.

Speaking of seeing did you notice:

• Textures: Holy crap, the textures on the clothing look amazing! Near the beginning of the trailer check out the cloth texture on the enemy wearing the plaid shirt, you can see every fiber. Wow.

• Gritty /harsh camera and lighting: What originally attracted me to "Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter" and a strong point of "RE4". I cannot wait to see this game on my soon to be purchased HDTV. The lighting looks unbelievable and just so...........raw.

• The speed: Everything about this game looks to be faster, from weapons, to enemies, to Chris. Anyone else notice how much backing up Chris did? This will surely to build a lot of tension.

"Welcome to Africa"
Is this game simply a set change from "RE4"? From the looks of it, sort of. But is that a bad thing? "Resident Evil 4" was by far one of my favorite games from the last generation of hardware. A game that completely reinvented the franchise and contained some of the most graphic violence I had seen in a game (and this was on a Nintendo console of all places), and of the coolest boss fights EVAR (lake creature, anyone?) "RE4" left me wanting much more than multiple playthroughs could ever satisfy. I wanted to know even more about Las Plagas, I wanted more weapons; I wanted less escort missions (Ashley, I'm lookin' at you), I wanted a story that didn't go off the deep end after the first half.

Could the mindless infected villagers we have seen so far be just the tip of the iceberg like Los Ganados were last time? I hope so, just keep it as grounded in reality as you can this time Capcom. Is the Umbrella Corp. behind Las Plagas now? I hope that we'll learn more once E3 rolls around this year. I would love to buy this come fall, but I won't hold my breath; Capcom could release it in January once the holiday rush is over like they did with "RE4".

Jeff Haywood's 2 cents: The choice of "enemies" is going to cause quite a stir when this game is released. I wonder if the Japanese-based developer knows what they are getting into...

Today's total waste of time

He said whaaaaa?

Have a question or a total waste of time to share with a geek? E-mail Jeff Haywood: jhaywood@grpress.com